Sunday Funday

Fall is here in the Durham area and it is beautiful!

one of the trees I run by in the afternoons

Apparently winter will be here this week too...and, Christmas music will start playing on some radio stations on Thursday. Is November really happening this week?!? I'm all about Christmas, but am not quite ready for it yet. I'm still enjoying fall!

The end of the first nine weeks has come and we celebrated with a teacher work day on Friday. I had two full days of testing last week and got all of my planning for this coming week and my grades done. So, I was able to actually get work done in my classroom after our meeting in the morning on Friday. With the new Brightlink, I had to move the things on my walls around. Thank you Allyson for helping me make sure everything was straight and centered! New pictures coming soon...

We had a fall retreat this weekend with our middle school students. I am always so impressed with the students at The Summit. I have never met a friendly, more outgoing and accepting youth group. In my group, I had one girl from our campus, two from the Cary campus, one from the North Raleigh campus, and six from Brier Creek. You would have never known at any point in the evening that they didn't know each other or the three leaders. It was so encouraging to watch them reach out and accept everyone into the group without any guidance from us. I definitely wasn't like that in middle school and honestly still struggle being thrown into a group where I don't know anyone. I was definitely encouraged by them this weekend.

Stephen and I carved our annual pumpkin this week. Meet Hans...

In our second unit, we've been looking at a lot of real world problems. Students have had to figure out how much of a specific chore they would have to do to earn money to go to the fair or buy something new that they want. I made up one problem where they were saving for a big vacation in Europe. I gave them an income and a monthly budget and they had to figure out how long they needed to save to be sure they would have enough money to go on the trip. I based the problem and budget on mine and Stephen's income and budget. As I walked around, I tired to get them to look past the numbers and really discuss how to save money and how long it takes for a big trip like that taking into consideration expenses that come up that might not be itemized in a monthly budget like car problems or doctor visits. I asked one group what they figured out and one boy responded, "These people are poor! They are NEVER going to be able to go on this trip!" I just smiled and kept on walking...